6-year-old girl dies after brother, 8, drives into pole

PHOENIX - An 8-year-old boy who crashed his mother's car into a utility pole, killing his 6-year-old sister, likely won't face criminal charges because of his young age, Phoenix police said.

Police said the pair took the car for a joyride after their mother fell asleep Wednesday night.

A series of 911 calls at about 10:15 p.m. MT Wednesday from residents in the area saying a young child was behind the wheel of a vehicle. A group of them, including the children's frantic mother, were chasing the Hyundai Elantra on foot.

"It looks like next to me there are these two little kids driving a car," Rudy De La Cruz, 17, told a 911 dispatcher as he followed in his own vehicle. "They're all over the lanes and not stopping." The 911 calls that Phoenix police released Thursday as well as accounts from neighbors described the chaos leading up to the crash.

At some point the vehicle veered from the road, crashed through a steel fence that separates the neighborhood from the street and drove back onto the road. Neighbors said tire marks in the dirt show the path the vehicle traveled.

Neighbor Delia Lara said she was smoking a cigarette and chatting in a neighbor's backyard when they heard the vehicle crash through a steel fence. She described it as a "loud noise, like thunder."

A boy appeared to be in the driver's seat, his head barely peeking above the steering wheel, Lara said.

"He looked like he could barely reach the foot pedals."
- Rudy De La Cruz, Phoenix